Descent Into Hell
by Kiera Namir
Summary: How would things go if the Autobots lost the battle for Detroit?
1. Prologue

It was a struggle fighting the Decepticons normally. It was proving impossible with the addition of the three Lugnut Supremes. Optimus was holding them off with the Magnus Hammer the best he could, but what they really needed was the power of the AllSpark. Prowl and Jazz were working together to restore it, but were only partly successful.

After Starscream's announcement, humans all over Detroit and within the surrounding one hundred mile radius were heading for bomb shelters. Captain Fanzone was doing his best to organize the chaos and direst the people of his city to safety. He cast a glance toward the sky; where were those blasted Autobots with Omega Supreme? They should have returned already. The massive field of glowing blue that had been a constant in the corner of his eye suddenly vanished. The protective force field that had covered Sumdac Tower had failed. With a muttered curse, he hurried people along.

The cyber ninjas were jolted out of concentration as one of the Lugnut clones crashed into the tower. Megatron himself flew from the clone he'd been piloting to grab the mostly-restored AllSpark. "No!" Prowl cried, and jumped into the warlord's path, curling himself around the life-giving source in a last ditch attempt to keep it out of Decepticon servos. Jazz attacked Megatron with the hope of giving Prowl enough time to escape, but one blast of the Con's fusion cannon put an end to that. Megatron flew away from the crumbling tower with both Prowl and the artifact in his grasp.

Finally Omega reentered city airspace. Optimus managed to pluck Jazz from the tower rubble before it could crush him entire and retreated to the massive orange shuttle. Omega jerked as the bomb blast caught up to them, nearly dropping from the air before a command from Ratchet had him pushing himself to his limits to get off the planet. They waited out the destruction just above the planet's atmosphere, and Sari prayed her father would be safe and alive when they returned.

* * *

Starscream grumbled as he pieced himself back together. Slagging Megatron. He just wouldn't _die_! He winced as his spinal strut reconnected with his hip joints. Ohh, that hurt... Frag that, he ached all over. He could deal with that later though, for now, he had the destruction of a tyrannical leader to see to. He wondered if the humans would be smart enough to get themselves to safety- typically he held little regard for organic species, but Earth's humans had proved interesting in their tenacity.

Stars, but he hoped Blitzwing was able to get out in time. The triple-changer had gone to Earth with Megatron to "aid in the destruction" (mostly at Shockwave's insistence that his presence on Omega Supreme would only hinder his work. Blitzwing certainly lived up to the Decepticon name sometimes). He transformed and flew to Earth.

Utter chaos met his optics. Even now, humans were screaming and running in panic despite the police force's best efforts to direct them to the nearest bomb shelters. Well. Maybe that level of intelligence _was_ too much to hope for.

There was a sudden sharp pain in his processors and he was jerked in the direction of Sumdac Tower. He caught a glimpse of the two ninjas meditating and immediately realized what was going on, and that it would be in his best interests to get the Pit out of there. He did precisely that, fighting against the pull until he was out of their range.

* * *

Blitzwing had allowed himself to be carried away by the whirlwind Optimus created with the Magnus Hammer. Injuries would be a good excuse to use when Megatron would later ask why he had disappeared from the fight. And certainly, he was injured, but not so bad that he had to sit out. No, he simply did not want to partake in the slaughter that was sure to be happening even now. He hoped Starscream's plan would actually work this time. This battle would be the turning point of the whole war- if Optimus' team won (and he sincerely hoped they would), the war would be over and he and the Seeker could return to Cybertron as what they truly were. If not... everything would go to the Pit. Earth would become Megatron's personal playground. Humanity would be wiped out. He would have his servos on the AllSpark and with it, would decimate the Autobots.

As luck would have it, things went almost entirely Megatron's way. Omega Supreme had returned too late to be of any use other than a means of escape.

He was now standing at the detonation point of Starscream's bombs. One hundred miles in any direction, all he could see was complete and utter devastation. No buildings, no forest, no fields, nothing but ash and rubble and twisted, melted steel. Even the mountains seemed reduced. It hadn't even managed to destroy Megatron, that resourceful slagger had made a clean getaway.

His Spark ached for the humans and the hardships they would have to endure from now on merely to survive. Guilt gnawed at him and stirred his fuel tanks- he didn't want to go back to the tyrant, but the Autobot ninja Prowl had been captured. He would try his best to free the black and gold mech, but with the way things were going, he knew luck wasn't favoring him. Most likely, the motorcycle would be given to Shockwave to 'play' with until he deactivated. Whether he succeeded or failed at his self-imposed mission, he would be leaving the Decepticons for good when he was unable to do anything more for the prisoner.

With a heavy Spark, he took to the sky.


	2. Chapter 1

The devastation was too much. When the Autobots returned to Earth, there was almost nothing to suggest a flourishing city had once stood there, only rubble and mangled steel beams barely managing to stand upright. They had landed where their factory base once stood, locatable now only by its coordinates. Omega's transformation cog had been damaged in the blast, trapping him in his vehicle mode, and with Sari's key now useless, it would be some time before Ratchet would be able to repair it. For now, Jazz required his attention.

At least Sari had been reunited with her father. The Tower's bomb shelter had been one of the few to survive the blast, and Professor Sumdac was safe, if not entirely sound.

Jazz and Arcee opted to stay. Once the white ninja was back on his pedes, they began their search for Prowl. But he wasn't in the mines the Decepticons had inhabited- those were abandoned once more. They were no longer on the moon either. His transponder signal was impossible to locate. After four weeks of non-stop searching, they were forced to give up.

It was several days later that they received a datachip left by an anonymous visitor. On it was a video log, apparently Shockwave's doing. As the Decepticon tank moved away from the camera lens, they were given a perfect view of Prowl strapped to a medical berth, struggling uselessly against his bonds. When his physical strength failed him, he resorted to processor-over-matter, only to be jarred from his concentration by the scientist, via a vicious jab in a sensitive area. "None of that," Shockwave spoke, his normal bored tone taking on the hint of a growl. Sari and the younger bots had to leave soon after, unable to watch their normally stoic and steadfast friend screaming from torture. Prowl has lasted five days before his Spark gave out. The Indian girl cried for weeks after, curled up in her father's arms. They'd lost two close comrades in the space of a week; Captain Fanzone had been incinerated in the bomb blast, still trying to get people into bomb shelters.

A week after the video incident, they received a message from the Council. It was being broadcast to all off-planet teams: Ultra Magnus had deactivated from his injuries. As Sentinel had proven himself inept during his short time as Acting Magnus, Rodimus Prime would instead be promoted. It was a terrible blow to the Autobots' morale to have a new leader promoted in such a time of crisis, even if many did believe Rodimus to be a much better candidate.

A solemn mood gripped the crew, one they doubted they would ever be able to shake.

* * *

Blitzwing shut and locked his door after entering his quarters. He had been the one to download Shockwave's video log and take a copy to the Autobots. They deserved to know the dark ninja's fate. He shut off the invasive security camera, not caring that he could be punished for such an act. He was a Decepticon lieutenant, slag it, he deserved some privacy.

That task complete, he sat and huddled in a corner of the room, hugging his knees and envying Blackarachnia's ability to cry. He had failed his mission to rescue Prowl, helpless to aid the Autobots in any way. He'd never felt so helpless before. His intakes choked and he leaned forward to rest his forehead against his knees, shuddering with grief.

* * *

Megatron sat in an elaborate chair in the center of the control room of their newly-built base. The Constructicons had outdone themselves in designing it and putting it together, though he'd had to put that obnoxious little forklift in his place several times to keep the project on track. The place was more utilitarian than artful, but sound, and that was all that really mattered.

The warlord leaned back in his throne and smirked to himself as he admired the glowing blue crystal he held in his palm. Finally, after so many centuries, he had his servos on the AllSpark. Its current state of incompletion mattered little to him. He'd be all too happy to take the remaining pieces from the gray shells of the mechs it had given life to. Perhaps starting with his most persistent pests... Starscream and his clones. Yes, that would work perfectly. He could kill two birds with one stone, as the human saying went.

And his Autobot nemeses were being dealt blow after blow as well, first losing one of their already small group, and then losing their precious Magnus. Shockwave had told him that the new Magnus, Rodimus, was certainly more competent than that idiot Sentinel, but still too much of a rookie to cause them much trouble. This couldn't be any more of an opportune moment. He leaned forward in his seat and ordered Soundwave to send a message to all of his troops. They were to gather on Earth. Now was the time to move.

* * *

Starscream chewed on a rusted length of rebar and he cobbled together the computer equipment he'd 'liberated' from a few human businesses and even a smaller military base. Even with Sumdac's contributions that he'd gleaned from Megatron's head (and that thought never ceased to amuse him), human technology was still frustratingly primitive compared to Cybertronian tech. But it would have to do. He needed to track down and collect his creations before Megatron could find and kill them. The only reassurance he had was that the brats didn't like the Decepticon leader anymore than they liked their own creator.

He set down his soldering gun and confidently powered up his new monitoring system. It turned on without a hitch. Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he settled in to start writing the programming it still needed. He would need to get it up and running soon. If he knew Megatron (and he did), the warlord wouldn't wait much longer to begin his hunt for the remaining AllSpark shards.


	3. Chapter 2

_six months after Detroit_

Things had gone from bad to worse in the relatively short time that passed since the destruction of Detroit. That winter was particularly harsh, and the Autobots had scavenged nearly all the food supplies that could be found in the towns on the destruction's perimeter. They would have to move on soon if they didn't want Sari and Isaac to starve.

Sari had begun learning how to identify edible wild foods and to cook on her father's suggestion, and at Optimus' insistence, backed up the files onto Teletran's hard disk. Prime's foresight turned out to be very useful when the internet slowly became less and less accessible, and then finally vanished altogether. Jazz reported that incoming Cons had taken out phone lines and cell towers, and they had most likely taken control of the satellites for their own use as well. The only signals any of them could pick up came from shortwave radios, and what they were hearing wasn't good. The Decepticons were on the move, wiping out any human resistance they were met with. That worried the Autobots. Why would Megatron want to conquer Earth?

It hadn't gone unnoticed that Starscream and his clones were missing. The Autobots had no doubt that Megatron would be hunting them down for their AllSpark fragments, but whether he'd succeeded or the crafty jets had gone into hiding, they didn't know. They hoped for the latter.

Several weeks later, they came across Mixmaster's shredded gray remains while on a scavenging trip. At Bulkhead's insistence, they had given the cement truck a proper burial. Mix had never been inherently evil, just... misguided.

It was three days later that they happened across Scrapper. The power shovel had run up to them completely hysterical, begging them to keep him safe. The Autobots were so stunned by his request that they'd barely had time to process it, let alone give him an answer, before he let out a terrified shriek and tried to run again. He didn't make it very far.

Team Chaar chose that moment to make their presence known. Sari hustled her father back to the safety of Omega Supreme's interior as her friends prepared themselves for battle, ready to defend the mech who had begged for their protection. But the Decepticons were ruthless and determined, and had not been listed as an elite team without reason. They had fought and functioned as a team longer than some of their Autobot foes had been alive, and no matter how skilled each individual was, they were clearly still adjusting to the new group dynamics. It was a small matter to swat them aside and reach their target.

Scrapper screamed as Spittor's tongue cable shot out and wrapped around his ankles. He dug his digits into the already ravaged pavement, trying to delay the inevitable as he was dragged back toward his doom. The Autobots could only watch in helpless rage as the Cons tore into the construction bot, hacking and slashing and clawing him open. The sounds of Scrapper crying how sorry he was he had ever joined the Cons, _Primus, he only wanted to live, was it too much to ask for?_, mixed with the sight of his life fluids leaking out from under the Cons' pedes, would haunt them forever. They would never forget the sight of Oilslick plucking the glowing blue crystal, dripping gold-green liquid, from the mech's remains.

* * *

They had almost been too late to save Wreck-Gar. The oblivious, innocent junkbot had realized almost too late that Shockwave had come to _kill him_ and had run, but was quickly caught. Shockwave was just prying open his chest plating when the Autobots arrived, descending upon him in a wave of fury. Cowed by their unbridled rage (which he would later wear rivaled Megatron's) and their sheer numbers, the Decepticon spy made a hasty retreat. Wreck-Gar's injuries were minor, but the youngling had been traumatized by his experience and attached himself to Ratchet whenever possible. The medic never made a move to discourage him.

How had they even managed to forget about him?

* * *

Starscream keened loudly, shuddering in grief even as strong arms sought to comfort him. His clones, his creations, his _children_, had been declared traitors like their creator before them, and imprisoned to be dissected. Ramjet and Sunstorm had been torn apart before Blitzwing even arrived in Shockwave's lab, their AllSpark pieces ripped from their Sparkchambers. The triple changer managed to free the other three, but Slipstream had been deactivated by a well-aimed cannon blast to the helm. The Seeker didn't bother trying to push away the pain; his creations had only just been coming into their own personalities and powers, developing beyond the basic programming Starscream had given them. They'd had so much potential, and Megatron had murdered them just as it was being realized.

Ironically, his two remaining creations discovered their own unique abilities during their escape. Thundercracker had taken to the air quickly after being freed and produced a sonic boom loud enough to knock everybot's audios offline. He didn't know _how_ he could do it, just that he _could_. And Skywarp, spurred on by his sister's sudden violent death (or perhaps plucking up his courage for once), had grabbed both Thundercracker and Blitzwing and teleported them far away from Megatron's Earth base. Unfortunately, teleporting himself along with two other very large mechs over such a great distance had used up all of his remaining energy and knocked him offline. Blitzwing had given him some of his emergency rations, but the purple jet had yet to power up again.

"I managed to find a portable energon converter," Blitzwing spoke softly into one of Starscream's audio receptors, trying to give him something else to focus on. "And I brought enough mid-grade to last us two decacycles. Ve need to find shelter zhough, vinter is on its vay.'

The Seeker nodded and tried to pull himself together, cycling a few shuddering intakes to calm himself again. He needed to focus on the positives if they were going to survive this. At least not _all_ of his children had been taken away, he thought as he watched Thundercracker protectively cradle his youngest brother close, Skywarp still deep in recharge. They still had access to proper fuel. And there were plenty of hollows within the mountains that they could make use of. He stood up and stretched his legs. "I know a few caves we can use for now. And once we get there, I'm disabling your transponders so those aftheads can't find us through our signals." Blitzwing didn't argue, somewhat relieved his friend was at least sounding like his usual snippy self. After he helped to lift Skywarp's heavy frame into Thundercracker's arms, the flyers made their way toward the mountain range.

* * *

Soundwave leaned back in his seat and stared unseeing at the monitors before him, taking a break from tracking new Decepticon arrivals and guiding them to suitable landing areas, letting himself get lost in his thoughts. Despite being barely two Earth years old, he'd found himself promoted to lieutenant in light of Blitzwing's recent treason (and hadn't _that_ been a shocker; Megatron had noticed the triple changer had become more unstable since his 'death' (though fifty stellar cycles with nobot but Lugnut as company would drive _anyone_ batshit insane, to borrow a human phrase, Soundwave thought), but he'd still been unwaveringly loyal to Megatron, or at least had _seemed_ that way). It was quite flattering that the warlord thought him so capable, in spite of his extreme youth, though he had to admit, he wasn't entirely sure he liked having so much responsibility placed on his shoulders.

Shockwave and Lugnut didn't help matters either. His promotion meant being around the two fanatics more often, and therefore he was often audience to their petty bickering for Megatron's attention like a couple of sparklings. He practically _was_ one himself, and he had far more dignity than that. How Megatron dealt with their constant aft-kissing and trying to one-up each other without losing his mind, the technopath would never know.

Soundwave cast a surreptitious glance back at his leader, who was once more turning the near-complete AllSpark over in his large servos, looking for all the world like a human fortune teller gazing into a crystal ball to try to see the future. Even he couldn't deny the artifact had a hypnotic quality to it, but Megatron seemed the most susceptible to it, and the more its glow graced his faceplates, the more driven he was to restore it at any cost.

Perhaps Soundwave had misjudged just how sane his master was these days.


	4. Chapter 3

_ten months after Detroit_

Megatron had found them.

Granted, it hadn't been a difficult feat. The Autobots had never ventured far from the blast radius, and Omega's orange coloration painted a bright target against the desolate gray backdrop. The surrounding cities and towns had been abandoned, leaving a surprising amount of usable goods behind. They had been out on one such scavenging trip when the warlord and his new team crossed their path.

It took Megatron all of three seconds to smirk at them, bring his fusion cannon to bear and wipe Professor Sumdac from existence. There wasn't even ash left. The Autobots had been too stunned to fight back.

Optimus blamed himself. Ratchet, Jazz and Arcee tried to cheer him up, or at least make him feel less guilty; the young Prime always blamed himself when things went wrong. But he knew this time it really _was_ his fault. He'd been the closest to the Professor, but had locked up when he saw Elita standing at Megatron's side.

Certainly he'd known she'd joined the Decepticons, had known since they found each other again that Halloween night so long ago. But he had never actually seen her with any of them, she had always worked alone. Actually seeing her there with Lugnut, Soundwave and Shockwave had finally forced it to sink in.

Sari holed herself up in Jazz's room; the only other bots she allowed in to see her were Arcee and Ratchet. When by the third day she gave no sign of coming out, her hammock-bed was moved from Bee's room to the ninja's. The minibot tried not to make a fuss about it. He knew his best friend was in a fragile state of mind after the violent death of her father, and in all his immaturity he was bound to upset her sooner or later. Even so, he couldn't help but whine about it every now and then.

At least he'd been the first one she hugged when she finally emerged a month later.

That night they decided it was finally time to leave. There was nothing left to salvage, and human food had been getting scarce even before Isaac's murder. The young organomech suggested heading south for warmer climes. Jazz said to follow the mountain chain down- if they needed somewhere to hide, a cave in the mountains would like be the only place large enough.

The march south was slow going. The crew had sorely underestimated just how many Cons had arrived on Earth. It seemed almost every other day they ran into a team. Too often they hadn't had enough time to recover from repairs before they were forced to defend themselves once more. Ratchet was running ragged, spending more time fixing his team than refueling and recharging together, and they were quickly running out of spare parts. Most towns along their way had already been stripped bare by the Cons.

Sari insisted on the old field tech teaching her Cybertronian medicine, on the ground that if he had an assistant that knew what they were doing, repairs could be made more quickly, and he could get some decent rest. The realization that she may be close to losing yet another member of her family frightened the girl into making her decision. Ratchet was more than willing to comply and soon had himself two students, as Wreck-Gar was still reluctant to wander too far from his side.

The junk bot had made a personal discovery during that time- one of talent. He had discovered how to configure random junk parts into parts compatible with himself, and then his teammates. Ratchet had been so proud of him, even if it still wasn't enough. It was at least more than they had before, and he would do anything for a bit of praise from the grumpy medic. With their determination, both he and Sari were shaping up to be fine medics, Ratchet had said.

Wreck-Gar smiled cheerfully as his 'study buddy' entered his room. No, they certainly wouldn't let any of their team down.

* * *

It was a quiet night after one of their rare peaceful days. Some of the Autobots were outside, lying back on Omega Supreme's roof to catch the last glimmers of stars as clouds slowly rolled in. Sari had chosen Optimus' windshield to stretch out on that night, simply enjoying being in the company of her friends and the only family she had left. After a while, a thought drifted into her mind.

"You asked me once, if you were in the Well of All Sparks, when I brought you back. I was so relieved then, I never thought to ask what that was."

The Prime smiled to himself, seeing the question for what it was. "It's where all Sparks go when a bot ceases to function." He answered her. Sari made a face, wrinkling her nose.

"Even evil creeps like Megatron?" Somebot chuckled; it sounded like Jazz.

"Even evil creeps like Megatron," Optimus confirmed with a somewhat sad note in his voice. "What happens when humans die?"

Sari didn't answer for a few minutes, as if gathering her thoughts, and her courage to speak of a subject that still caused pain. "Humans believe that when they die, good people go to Heaven, while bad people get sent to Hell, where they suffer for the sins the committed in life for all of eternity. And some people believe that not everyone crosses over to one side or the other, but remain here as ghosts." She felt a faint shudder go through his frame. "Optimus?"

"Why?" came Jazz's curious query. Arcee looked intrigued as well.

"Well, most of the time it's because they died horrible, violent deaths. But some stay because they were really attached to someone, or some thing or place, and don't wanna leave it." She sighed, rolling onto her side to stare out into the distance. "Are there really no exceptions? Every Spark goes? No ghosts or guardian angels or anything like that?" she asked quietly.

"...I wish there was some way he could stay with us too, Sari." Jazz admitted.

"We all do." Optimus agreed. Sari let out a shuddering breath, squeezing tears of disappointment from her eyes.

* * *

Starscream's engines revved in an impatient growl as he rubbed the sides of his helm, trying to soothe his growing processor ache. Primus had a cruel sense of humor, he thought, to take all of his _worst_ traits and concentrate them in his clones. Thundercracker was once more complaining that he was too good to be hiding in a cave, while Skywarp eeped and quivered at every peal of thunder that echoed through their 'home'. What he wouldn't give to pull a double shift, if only to have some peace of meta! Blitzwing could deal with their inanity far better than he ever could. Speaking of the devil...

Skywarp was quick to teleport over to the berserker and cling to him, whimpering. Blitzwing stroked the young mech's helm as he flicked rain water off his wings. "Ze storm should be clearing up soon. Perhaps anozher half a megacycle, zhen ve can leave."

"Are you sure about this?" Starscream asked. It was a decacycle ago that Blitzwing suggested finding the Autobots and joining them. He didn't think it was such a good idea. They had all fought and injured the Bots; Pit, Starscream had even _killed_ Optimus once! He knew by no stretch of the imagination would they be happy to see the ex-Cons.

"Vhat ozher choice do ve have? Ve can't survive much longer like zhis."

"Fine, fine. But _you're_ doing all the talking."

Sure enough, the storm passed in another hour. The four ex-Cons transformed and took to the sky, following the mountains south. They hadn't made it very far when something slammed into Skywarp. The purple jet's engines stalled, and he let out a terrified shriek as he plummeted toward the rocky slope below. As Starscream dove to catch his youngest creation, Blitzwing and Thundercracker searched for their assailant.

On the slope below them was a scouting team. With an enraged snarl Thundercracker dove down, releasing one of his powerful sonic blasts right over their heads. One of the scouts fell with a pained scream, audios and optics shattered. The other four shrugged off their pain the best they could and continued to fire on the deserters. Blitzwing transformed as his Random personality took over and let himself fall from the sky, cackling gleefully. He hadn't seen any action for so long, this was exciting!

Starscream shot from the treeline after reassuring himself of Skywarp's safety and joined the skirmish, firing mercilessly upon the scouts with his null rays as Blitzwing grappled with them. Thundercracker joined him in the firefight, trying to ignore the triplechanger tearing the processors right out of a bot. He'd never seen the other mech fight to his true potential. It was... frightening, though he'd never admit it aloud.

"Zhat vas fun!" Blitzwing giggled as he dropped his last victim to the ground.

"Yes, but now we really need to get moving," Starscream griped. "Megatron won't waste any time looking into why one of his scout teams lost contact." His optics widened at a sudden realization. "Pit, they probably called for reinforcements already! SKYWARP!"

The timid Seeker crept from the trees, optics widening at the sight of the carnage. "Time to go!" Starscream snapped, grabbing his wrist and pulling him into the air. Skywarp didn't argue; he'd do anything to get away from that scene of violence. It was scary! He glanced back to see the jet forms of his brother and Blitzwing following them, and relaxed slightly. It seemed none of his 'family' was hurt. Momentarily reassured, he allowed Starscream to release him from his grip and transformed into his own alt mode.

* * *

It had been several days since their fight with the scout team, and in that time the Seekers had grown uncharacteristically quiet. Nervous, Blitzwing thought. They had never been with the Autobots to really know what they were like. He quickly thought of a way to break the heavy silence.

"If zhey do accept us, do you think zheir medic can reprogram us to our original colors? I miss my blue."

"Primus, I hope so. I can't stand being this Spark-awful shade of _pink _anymore." Starscream grumbled in response. Blitzwing switched to his Random persona and giggled hysterically.

"Aww but Starscream it looks so _good_ on you!" he teased. The Seeker ignored him, instead grumbling about how he wished he could find some Primus-damned paint somewhere.

"Hey, isn't that the Autobots' ship?" Thundercracker suddenly demanded, pointing down at something obnoxiously orange trundling along at ground level.

"I'll be slagged... That _is_ Omega Supreme!"

Skywarp eeped and his behind his creator as the Autobot warrior's cannon turret spun around to take aim at them. Starscream realized with a sinking feeling that the ship had stopped, and the Autobots were filing out to confront them, weapons drawn. Sparing a glance at Blitzwing, the jet lowered himself to the ground, Skywarp still clinging to him.

The Autobots tensed as the four cons stood before them. They didn't draw their weapons, didn't even taunt them, just... stood there, albeit uncomfortably. "What do you want?" Optimus growled.

Blitzwing noted that the Bots looked terribly worm. Not one of them was without at least one ding in their armor. Most had weld scars, old and new, and some even sported unpainted patches on their armor. He lifted his servos in what was meant to be a placating manner; the little yellow mech responded by charging up his stingers. After all, the triplechanger had pulled such a trick on him before. But this time, his cannons stayed raised. "Ve have no intentions of harming you," he spoke.

"How can we trust you?" Bumblebee snapped.

Blitzwing's head whirled, his Hothead persona taking over, and he growled. "Ve vould have already attacked if ve hadn't meant it, you scrapheap!"

"Back down, Bumblebee." Optimus ordered in a calmer tone. He still regarded the ex-Cons warily, but had relaxed his stance. "I ask again, what do you want?"

Blitzwing calmed as well, his Icy visage sliding back into place. "Ve vish to join you. Ve left ze Cons more zhan six orbital cycles ago and have no desire to return. Ve can help defend you, provided zhat you protect zhem." He gestured to the Seekers. "Zhey each carry a piece of ze AllSpark, and Megatron has no care for how many lives he destroys, as long as ze AllSpark is back in one piece."

So they weren't just trying to save their own skidplates- they were looking to keep Megatron from completing the AllSpark. Still, why were they helping each other? It wasn't like Decepticons to do so. Optimus voiced his thoughts.

Blitzwing and Starscream shared looks. "You might as well tell them," the Seeker said with a shrug.

"I never really vas a Decepticon. I vorked as a spy for Ultra Magnus. And Starscream vas never given ze choice, Megatron forced him to join."

"Whoa, you worked for Magnus?" Jazz piped up, curiosity getting the better of him. "Y'know, I found hints we had a mole in the Cons, but I never would've expected it to be _you_."

Blitzwing grinned as his Random personality took over. "I am a good actor, yes?" he chirped and cha-cha'd in place.

"Solid." Jazz replied, chuckling.

"How do we know you're not just acting now?" Ratchet grouched, eyeing them suspiciously.

"I'm getting a good feeling about this, Ratchet." Optimus said quietly, watching as the rest of his team slowly approached the ex-Cons.

"You and your feelings," the medic grunted, but didn't argue. The four flyers were as good as Autobots, as far as the young Prime was concerned. He watched his leader approach Starscream.

"Can I trust you to follow my orders?" he asked. The Seeker glanced down at him, looking somewhat startled.

Starscream narrowed his optics at the Prime, thinking. He knew his defiance against Megatron was practically legendary; Optimus was surely asking because of it. Could he bring himself to trust the Autobot leader? "We'll see," he finally answered. Optimus nodded, accepting his response.

"Let's go get you all settled in then. We don't have any more spare rooms I'm afraid, but the cargo bay should have plenty of space."


	5. Chapter 4

Shockwave tapped a claw on the glowing keypanel, careful not to touch any of its glowing glyphs and interrupt the flow of information on the monitor. Megatron had taken the rest of his team and half of the Decepticon force on Earth back to Cybertron, leaving Shockwave in charge of the search for the remaining AllSpark shards. They'd managed to elude him so far, but not for much longer. For the past couple Earth weeks, an idea had been niggling at the back of his superior intellect, and pulled up scouting reports and notations of missing teams, looking for a pattern. On another monitor was a map of the United States- or what had been, until recently.

Red dots lit up one by one on the map. Some were scattered randomly about the country, but perhaps twenty or so formed a line down the Appalachian Mountains. If the spy could have smiled in smug satisfaction, he would have done so. Even so, he felt immensely pleased with himself. He'd found that persistent team of Autobots. That was one more fragment he would soon be collecting.

Unfortunately, the deserters were doing a much better job of laying low, which was surprising for mechs like Starscream and Blitzwing.

...Or perhaps not, considering they _did_ know the ways of the Decepticons. They would know what to look out for and how to avoid it. Even if one was insane and the other could trip over his own inflated ego, they weren't stupid. He tapped his claw again, thinking. Ah, he knew hat to do.

"Scourge, report to Command immediately. I have a job for you."

* * *

Life with the four former Decepticons proved to be chaotic at times. Between three noisy, high-strung Seekers and one insane triplechanger, the Autobots were hard-pressed to find peace. Especially Optimus himself. He still didn't know the story behind Starscream's hostility toward the warlord, aside from the tiny bit Blitzwing had told them, but he was beginning to gain some insight. The Seeker seemed to be constantly judging him, arguing with him over little things and apprehensively watching his reactions. He always seemed to be at a loss as to what to do when Optimus failed to strike him, or even raise his voice, even when he was obviously annoyed or frustrated by the jet's nitpicking. And the more the young Prime thought of how terrible it must have been to serve under the tyrant, the less he wanted to pry into Starscream's past.

Trust was slow in coming on both sides, but he could see signs of it. Blitzwing was more quickly accepted by Bumblebee and Sari once the younglings had introduced the triplechanger to video games- they hadn't yet been able to give up the noisy distractions. Random Blitzwing proved to be just as enthusiastic about the games as the kids.

It was more than an Earth month before any of the deserters would let Ratchet near their coding, no matter how much the medic assured them he would do them no harm. Blitzwing had had to watch all three Seekers get their Decepticon coding removed before he would allow Ratchet anywhere near him, and even then he gripped Starscream's servo so tightly he nearly broke it, the elder Seeker crooning softly to him the whole time in an effort to keep him calm long enough to let Ratchet work. The war vet worked quickly, much to Starscream's relief, and patted the triplechanger's shoulder to let him know it was all over. Later that night the four flyers would hear Ratchet ranting to Optimus about how _wrong_ that whole ordeal was, that Blitzwing had been so mistreated by medics and scientists. Decepticon and Autobot alike, he could no longer trust them not to do him harm.

Starscream was still slowly warming up to Optimus as a leader. It seemed to finally be sinking in that the Prime wouldn't harm him, no matter how much he was harassed by the Seeker. It also helped to see the rest of the Autobots following orders without question (except for Bumblebee and Sari, but frankly he had expected that of the hotheaded young mech and the independent femme). Even Thundercracker didn't argue or boast (much) anymore, when it came to the Prime.

Omega was still trapped in his ship mode, though he didn't mind much. He liked having the opportunity to be useful as something other than a weapon, and so told Ratchet he was in no hurry to have his transformation cog repaired, especially when their supplies were so low.

And then finally, somewhere in the southern US, Thundercracker and Bumblebee found an abandoned coal mine. The pair had scouted it out and found it both stable and large enough to suit their purpose.

"I find it amusing zhat ve are living in a mine again," Blitzwing commented as he entered the space, his light tone betraying his amusement.

"Hey Blitzwing, come on!" Sari called from a massive chamber that now housed Omega Supreme. "We could use your muscle over here!"

The triplechanger tromped over and lifted a crate containing some of Ratchet's medical supplies. "Careful with that!" the medic called out, and pointed to a table he wanted it placed on. His new medbay was the first 'room' to be set up. When all the crates were brought into the smaller cavern, Ratchet shooed everyone out to set it up himself. Jazz decided to take Sari and the young bots into a nearby town to scavenge, and to keep them occupied as the others finished setting up their new base.

As most towns they came across, this one was also abandoned and stripped of food and most basic necessities, many of the buildings damaged and some even completely demolished. Decepticons had obviously been there, most likely to destroy the town's human population as anything the mechs could have made use of was left behind. They got lucky when they found a handful of wind turbines and a solar panel or two left on homes and a few business buildings, their systems entirely intact. They also collected batteries of all sizes and purposes, lamps and light bulbs, several generators, a space heater for Sari and a few blankets. They almost entirely cleaned out an autoparts store. The supplies were carefully packed into Wreck-Gar's garbage container for the return trip.

It was nearing nightfall when they returned to the mine. The generators and lights were set up; the solar panels and wind turbines were set aside to be installed in the morning. They spent that night in Omega Supreme for the last time.

* * *

It had been a little over two Earth months since the refugees had settled into their new home. The Decepticons had left them almost entirely alone during that time, instead focused on conquering the humans. It had been a month before they realized they hadn't seen a single sign of Megatron lately, a thought that didn't sit well with anyone. He wasn't one to hide with his army almost back at full force, so the only other explanation they could come up with was that he'd left the planet, and was once more back on Cybertron.

It was a fear that settled deep within all their Sparks. With Ultra Magnus gone, it would be a simple matter for the warlord to conquer their homeworld.

Starscream sat perched on a rocky ledge far above their abandoned mine hideout, staring out over the forest that stretched before him. His paranoia would not let him rest unless he knew there was a lookout keeping guard, and most often that lookout was himself.

The sky was slowly turning orange due to the humans' nuclear weapons. They had no other means so effective in taking out the tough Decepticons. Soon the skies would be entirely clouded over, and nature would struggle to survive. That meant hard times ahead for Sari. Though he had little love for the humans, the spunky young femme had grown on him.

A small squeaks drew him out of his dark musings, and he glanced over his shoulder to find the source of the noise. His creations, now also his trinemates, sat huddled together a few yards away from him. Skywarp was doing most of the huddling, wibbling about being so high up; Thundercracker looked like he was merely tolerating his brother's clinging. Starscream tuned out his clones' quiet bickering as he rubbed the spot on his forehelm that hid the AllSpark fragment. Not for the first time, he wondered if he had gained it for a purpose, or if it was merely pure chance. All the mechs that had been brought online by the shards- his own creations included- had something unique to bring to the table. Surely, even in its broken state, the AllSpark knew what it was doing? He snorted softly at himself. It wasn't like to him to think such superstitious nonsense.

"Try putting it in your Sparkchamber."

The red Seeker startled and looked over at Thundercracker. "What?"

"The AllSpark piece. Put it in your Sparkchamber, see what happens." The blue flyer explained. When given a questioning look, he merely shrugged and twitched his wings. "Just a suggestion."

Starscream shrugged and plucked the shard from his helmet. He doubted anything would happen, but it couldn't hurt to try. His cockpit slid down to open his Sparkchamber, and he slipped the small piece inside. For a couple nanokliks nothing happened, and then-

With a startled yelp Starscream fell off the ledge and continued to fall for a few nanokliks before he got over his shock and kicked on his thrusters, righting himself. He could hear Skywarp having a panic attack up on their perch, and even Thundercracker looked a bit worried as their creator flew back up to the ledge. "What happened?"

"I... don't know." Starscream landed on the ledge and reopened his Sparkchamber, trying to see into it. The two clones stared in surprise.

"You have a Spark!" Skywarp cried, fascination taking over his fear for once. The two clones drew closer to get a better look at it; they hadn't seen a real Spark before. Starscream carefully fished out the AllSpark shard and stared at it thoughtfully.

A loud crunching noise caught the trio's attention, three pairs of optics snapping down to the trees below to find the source. Starscream put the shard in his subspace. "Skywarp," he spoke quietly, "I need you to teleport into the base and tell Optimus we've been found."

"WE'VE BEEN FOUND?" the coward shrieked, and Thundercracker slapped a servo over his mouth. The Seekers waited in breathless silence, praying they hadn't been heard and subsequently spotted. Unfortunately their prayers were in vain as a blaster shot created a small crater in the rock just beside Starscream's helm.

"Skywarp, GO!" the elder Seeker growled and charged up his null rays, Thundercracker following suit. The purple jet vanished with a _pop_ as his trinemates flew down to face their attackers. Starscream sneered when he recognized the blue and silver huntsmech. "Figures Megatron would send _you_ after us, instead of tracking us down himself. Where is our _illustrious leader_ anyway?"

"Away on business." Was Scourge's only response. "Surrender now and your deactivations will be swift." He commanded, aiming his blaster at Thundercracker's Sparkchamber.

"Hmm, I don't think that's much incentive to turn ourselves over. What do you think, Thundercracker?" Starscream put his taloned servos on his hips and looked at his blue creation. Thundercracker only scowled and fired a particularly vicious shot at the Decepticon. Starscream quirked an optic ridge at his trinemate's vehemence. "I don't think he likes you much."

Scourge snarled and returned the fire, sending the two Seekers scattering to avoid being shot. "It does not matter what a traitor thinks of me. Decepticons, attack!" he ordered, and his team began to fire on the jets. Starscream vented in relief when his own reinforcements showed up at that moment, Optimus leading the charge. He could hear the familiar scream of Blitzwing's engines as the triplechanger sped to their aid in jet-mode. He didn't even bother to slow down before transforming back into his root mode, tackling one of the scouts so hard he ripped the smaller mech in half.

A Sparkpulse later, a familiar axe went spinning past him to embed itself into a Con's helm. Starscream rebooted his optics, staring for a split-second before smirking and throwing himself fully into the battle. The fight was short, but vicious, and all of the Cons but Scourge were swiftly deactivated, the huntsmech escaping to report back to Decepticon headquarters. Thundercracker sneered at the carnage and flicked shed mech fluid from his claws.

"Are you alright?" Ratchet asked, standing slightly behind and to Starscream's side, not quite in the red Seeker's personal space. Starscream glanced down at him.

"Fine. Why?"

"Skywarp told me what happened." The medic folded his arms across his chestplates. "I am going to have a look at that, you know." His tone left no room for argument. Starscream merely smirked.

"You know Ratchet, if you want to see my Spark so badly all you have to do is say please." The ambulance huffed at him and turned to march back inside.

"Infirmary. Now. And bring your brats too. Wreck-Gar!"

"Yes sir!" the junk bot piped up.

"You too, come on." Ratchet's voice lost some of its gruff edge as he addressed the young mech. The orange mech trotted along behind him, following his mentor back inside.

* * *

"I just don't get it," Ratchet grumbled as he stepped back from his examination of Starscream's recovered Spark. Thundercracker and Skywarp watched the examination from a berth nearby, Skywarp's wings twitching from whatever was setting off his anxiety this time. "I can understand those two," he waved a servo toward the pair of younger Seekers, "not having a flicker of a Spark yet, they haven't been online nearly long enough. But Wreck-Gar was activated not long after you were revived, and I haven't seen any evidence of a Spark in his chamber either."

"It could have been any number of factors," Starscream mused. "I've had a Spark before. I've been alive for vorns, while he's got only a servo-full of this planet's stellar cycles under his fanbelt. I'm made of Cybertronian alloys, he's made of inferior Earth materials. The list goes on."

Here Ratchet smirked. "And yet he's more indestructible than you."

The Seeker waved him off. "It's the AllSpark fragment that protects him." He said airily.

The medic shook his head. "The other thing I'm curious about. How did you survive removing the AllSpark piece?"

Starscream shrugged. "Constant contact, I suppose. I wasn't going to risk finding out what would happen if I let it go." Ratchet sighed, the sound somewhat aggravated, and grumbled something inaudible to the other occupants of the room. Starscream guessed it was something along the lines of "stupid younglings and their curiosity", if he knew Ratchet well enough, and possibly something else about how Starscream himself was old enough to know better. He smirked unrepentantly as the medic turned his glare back on him.

"Well, get already." The ambulance snarked, and shooed the Seekers back out. "You've all got a clean bill of health and therefore no excuse to keep crowding my med bay." Starscream snickered and nudged his creations out ahead of him.

"You're both awfully subdued for once," he remarked.

"I should've been the one to get a Spark." Thundercracker sulked. "_I'm_ the best." Starscream rolled his optics.

"Ratchet's scary." Was all Skywarp offered as an explanation. Starscream agreed the Autobot medic could be intimidating (not that he'd ever say so out loud), so he wouldn't rib on his cowardly creation for that, but more often than not he found amusement in getting the medic worked up and having snarking contests with him. He'd met too few bots that could battle wits with him on such a level. At least 'Warp wasn't wailing and clinging like he usually did when something inevitably frightened him.

Starscream pulled the glowing AllSpark crystal from his subspace and studied it thoughtfully, debating what to do with it. Certainly, he'd be more careful in choosing his fights now that he had a proper Spark again... But perhaps it was better to keep it somewhere on his chassis, just in case. He stashed it back into his subspace; he would figure out where to place it later.


End file.
